SCOTTISH Labour MP Jim Murphy, who will travel to Qatar and Nepal in the next few weeks, is leading calls for FIFA to take action to stop the slaughter of migrant workers.

MORE than 400 Nepalese migrant workers have died on Qatar’s building sites as the Gulf state gears up to host the World Cup in 2022.

The horror death toll was revealed by a respected human rights organisation who gathered the grim statistics using official sources in Doha.

Figures from the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee pile pressure on the Qatari authorities and the football’s world governing body. Researchers found migrant workers living in squalid, overcrowded accommodation with no air conditioning and overflowing sewage.

Several camps lacked power and researchers found one large group of men living without running water.

The
death toll was for all the Gulf state’s building sites, not just the stadiums. But there are fears the number of fatalities could hit 4000 by
the time the 2022 finals kick off in all-new grounds.

Scottish
Labour MP Jim Murphy, who will travel to Qatar and Nepal in the coming weeks, is leading calls for decisive action from FIFA. He said yesterday: “It’s time to deal with the ugly secret of the beautiful game.”

The shadow international development minister, said: “People don’t have to die to bring us this or any other sporting event. Not a single worker died building the sites for the London Olympics.”

He insisted Qatar must give FIFA details of the full extent of the problem – and a plan to make things right.

He
said: “Nothing less will do. The shortcomings in the current system leave too many vulnerable people exposed.” Murphy, who will be in Qatar as a guest of the International TUC, said: “Football is the one truly global sport.

“Ahead of this year’s World Cup, it would be right to pause and remember all of those who have died making the Brazil World Cup possible.

“Tragically, at the current rate of loss of life there will be a terrifyingly long list on the eve of Qatar in 2022.

“I love football. However, when Bill Shankly is reputed to have said, ‘Some people believe football
is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that’, I
disagree.

“But in Qatar, the 2022 World Cup is becoming a matter of life and death for far too many.”

AFP/Getty Images

A migrant labourer works on a construction site

Nepalese workers make up 20 per cent of Qatar’s migrant workforce. Others are drafted in from countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

A focus on the Nepalese deaths has seen FIFA and Qatar battling a PR crisis threatening to cast a long shadow over the event.

Appearing before EU officials, Theo Zwanziger – a FIFA executive
who has criticised giving the tournament to Qatar – pledged his organisation would carry out on-the-spot visits to ensure workers’ rights were being respected.

But
that is unlikely to reassure human rights organisations and labour groups who have raised repeated concerns about Qatar’s kafala employment
system, which sees migrant workers tied to their “sponsor” employers.

Qatar’s World Cup authorities have issued detailed guidelines they hope will address concerns about their employment laws.

But this has not stopped the death toll rising.

Dave Evans/Demotix/Corbis

Workers' conditions have sparked protests in London

Murphy said: “Qatar has a population of around two million, but just one in eight are Qatari nationals.

“The majority are migrant workers from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and an incredible 400,000 are from Nepal.

“The
treatment of these workers is the ugly secret of the beautiful game. Some are tricked into travelling thousands of miles under false pretences.

“Too many have their passports confiscated, work without pay, suffer squalid conditions, work excessive hours and deal with staggering levels of debt.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch insist the problems are widespread.